Arch Linux

IcePik

Member

From: Canterbury, UK

Registered: 2008-12-14

Posts: 33

Samsung -Series 7 NP700Z5C

I am looking at the Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C as a replacement for my current laptop.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+1 … Id=5575679

Some of the specs are as below:
Intel® Core™ i7-3615QM Processor
8GB DDR3 Memory
1TB HDD with ExpressCache Technology, 8GB(I believe this is a 8 GB SSD on the motherbord)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 M Graphics

I would like to know if anyone here has this laptop and whether everything works ok, if not what did you need to tweak to get things started?

Here are a few questions i have:
- How long dose the battery last for?
- Can I run the Intel 4000 graphics processor inbuilt in the processor instead of the NVIDIA card to save on battery performance?
- Can I mount the 8GB SSD as a /boot or a swap partition?
- I've heard a lot of complaints of similar laptops lacking multi-touch trackpad support on some kernel versions, dose the stock arch kernel include support for this?

Love to hear from anyone who has one of these laptops and thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

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IcePik

LoBo3268715

Member

From: WI, USA

Registered: 2012-02-23

Posts: 34

Re: Samsung -Series 7 NP700Z5C

You should really be googling most of these things. I will tell you to avoid hybrid graphics with linux, they will most likely give you nothing but trouble.

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"Linux. A big, bad, scary computer operating system known only by people with neck beards."

bneate

Member

Registered: 2005-08-21

Posts: 36

Re: Samsung -Series 7 NP700Z5C

I have the previous NP700Z5A model of that laptop and so far am pretty happy with it. The main difference is the older generation CPU and a ATI video card.

- Battery life is pretty good 4-5 hours without anymore tweaking then installing the samsung-tools packages from the AUR (Windows gets 7-8 hours when not using the discrete graphics)
- I have not managed to get the ATI video card working and have to blacklist it's module to turn it off for power savings (The intel video card provides decent performance though)
- Must install samsung-tools for many of the powersaving features to work (also allows the multimedia keys to work)
- I have not tried to use the 8 GD SSD in linux yet but it appears as a normal drive so I would think it should work
- The elan touchpad works great including multi-touch support but does require additional setup to get working correctly (there is a guide on the wiki)